The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-29
AN ITALIAN VENDETTA.
St. James Gazette.

CHe seventeenth century; 8 trial which attracted great attention at the time, and which is still valuable as throw ing light on the closing days of me- di@valism in Italy. The history of the crime has been published at length by the historian himself in the Frank fort Gdzette; we give our readers a summary account of it.
 The Marquise Lucrezia dondi Oro- logia, born in 1910, was married at the age of eighteen, to Plus -Eneas delgi Obizzi, one of the last of those con- dottieri who sold their swords to this duke or that count of Lombardy and Tuscany. Lucrezia was handsome, but the marriage proved fortunate. She had three children, and for twenty years their happiness was undisturbed. In 1850 Plus Eneas made the &C., quaintance of a young gentleman of Padua named Attilius Pavanello. Pavanello was then twenty three years of age, good-looking, and of lively spirit. He became an intimate friend of the ObiZzi family, accom- panying them on several pilgrimages to Loretta and elsewhere. In the course of this intimacy he conceived a violent passion for Donna Lucrezia, and soon discovering the uselessness of attempting to warp her fidelity, he resolved to get possession of her by force. In November, 1654, the op- portunity of gratifying his wish pre- sented itself during the absence of Ferrara of Plus -Eneas. Donna Lu- crezia slept in wing of the palace at Padua remote from the servants quar- ters, and her son, Ferdinand, boy of fourteen, occupied an adjoining room. Pavanello, whose presence in the house would attract no notice, made his way to the chamber and concealed himself till nightfall, when he bolted the door of communication detween Donna Lucrezia's room and that of her son. In the middle of the night Ferdinand was aroused by the cries of his mother, but all his attempts to break down the door were in vain. At last there was silence Then a man, untitled up to the eyes, rushed out of the room, hurled the boy to the ground and disappeared. When they entered the inner room they found the dishonored and dead body of Lucrezia degli Obizzi. The mur- dercr had cut his victims thu oat with a razor. The weapon and an amber flask, mounted in gold. were the only evidence left of his presence.
 Suspicion did not fall at first on ox-hb ln FTha IooI to have been arranged by some of the many enemies of the successful con- dottieri leader, and the murderer him. self gave as much confirmation as he could to this story. More than a year elapsed before suspicion began to fall on Pavanello; but first one fact and then another induced people to fancy him the real criminal. Some remembered that Pavanello had a flask similar to that found in the room, and his incautious anxiety to recover possession of it by bribing an officer of the court stimulated the memory of his acquaintances. A servant of the murdered lady declared that he had offered him money to leave the door of her apartments unfastened but the most damaging evidence was furnished by himself, when in an in cautious moment he exclaimed to friend with whom he was drinking elf you had only seen how the mar quise fought in her bed! What soldier she would have made!" On this evidence the Panda court issued an order for Pavanello's arrest. As he was known to be desperate man it was not thought safe to arrest him openly and recourse was had to ruse to take him unawares. Plus -Eneas invited him to his palace and when there begged him to sell him the two pistols which he wore in his belt. Pavanello offered to give them to him, but Obizzi refused to accept the gift. He then persuaded Pavanello to take in exchange a shotgun then recently come into vogue, but which no one could wear within the juris- dictiOn of Venice without special permit. Pavanello forgot this regula- tion, and as he left the palace admir- ing his new weapon he was seized by the officers of the judicial court, who demanded to see the official permission authorizing his carrying the gun. Only when he was lying bound in the city prison was he told the true charges upon which he had been ar rested.
 Pavanello denied everything, al- though fresh evidence against him was found at his house in razor- case corresponding to the weapon left in Lucrezia's room and in blood stained linen concealed in a press. He was now sent to Venice, where he was ex- amined by the Council of Ten, and where the Lords of the Night inflicted on him the torture of burning the soles of his feet. Nevertheless, Pava-